Gotta Catch 'Em All! - Pokémon Thread

[Caldwin]

Now this is info from a quick glance at a Google search, so I'm hoping maybe I misunderstood or they misunderstood or hopefully Gamefreak might change before it's fully implemented.

My understanding is that Home functionality will come sometime in 2026. I more or less expected this. This isn't the bad part.

Pokemon from A-Z can not be transferred to any previous game. Likewise, any Pokemon from any previous game, once transferred into Z-A, can no longer be transferred back into any previous game.

Not ideal. I would prefer to be able to move them back and forth. I mean, at this point I suppose I'm mostly done with the old games so it's not the worst thing in the world. But still, wtf, man?

But the worst thing, the thing that really bugs me, any Pokemon once brought into Z-A won't be able to be taken into any future games.

Pokemon in Z-A can't go forward and can't go back. They're completely locked into Z-A. My shiny mawile who's been my companion since the days of the DS will never be able to go on future adventures with me after Z-A.

And heaven help my mawile buddy if I ever lose my save data, because I'm also hearing Z-A can't do cloud backup.

Like seriously, WTF, Gamefreak?

 

[ZakuConvoy]

Yeah, I would suggest not putting your shiny Mawile into Z-A. Because of getting locked to that game forever. It might literally be easier to just shiny hunt a new one, I'm sad to say.

It's something I've heard about, but I was wondering if they'd eventually patch it out. It just seems so strange. But, I guess it kind of makes sense, if they coded this game completely differently than any other game. They never did fix the whole Spinda problem in BDSP.

But, nah. Developing the paid DLC was a much higher priority than making the actual game more functional. (Yeah, yeah, that's not entirely fair, that's probably different teams, but I'm feeling grumpy about it.)

Gamefreak have never been competent or talented programmers. Creative idea people, yes. Good "craftsmen", no.



I've also heard that you can't turn off the Auto-Save feature. Which has me worried about game crashes. Because I feel like, most of the time with Pokemon games, if there's a major crash, it's because the game was trying to Auto-Save at the wrong time. It's just usually a better idea to turn it off. Plus, this means if you want another chance at a shiny Pokemon or boss battle, you're out of luck. You can't just restart your save, because it'll probably auto-save right after the battle is over.



The good news is, it sounds like the online "seasons" for this game will be pretty quick. If you get up to Rank K online, you can get your Greninja mega stone by October 31. So, it seems like "seasons" are only 2 weeks long. So, it should only be a little over a month to get all 3 exclusive mega stones. The bad news is...you have two weeks to get up to Rank K online, and I have NO IDEA how hard that actually is.


Personally, I think I'm waiting a week to see if either version of the game is "better" than the other. I'm going to be playing this on a original Switch, so I can go with either the Switch 1 version or the Switch 2 Edition that has the Switch 1 version in it, as I understand it. They really SHOULD be the same, but I have to wonder if one or the other version would run better on the original Switch.

 

[The Mighty Mollusk]

Kinda glad I'm still working on Digimon Story Time Stranger. Gives me an excuse to wait out the launch bugs and see if anything gets fixed.

 

[Tm_Silverclaw]

Now this is info from a quick glance at a Google search, so I'm hoping maybe I misunderstood or they misunderstood or hopefully Gamefreak might change before it's fully implemented.

My understanding is that Home functionality will come sometime in 2026. I more or less expected this. This isn't the bad part.

Pokemon from A-Z can not be transferred to any previous game. Likewise, any Pokemon from any previous game, once transferred into Z-A, can no longer be transferred back into any previous game.

Not ideal. I would prefer to be able to move them back and forth. I mean, at this point I suppose I'm mostly done with the old games so it's not the worst thing in the world. But still, wtf, man?

But the worst thing, the thing that really bugs me, any Pokemon once brought into Z-A won't be able to be taken into any future games.

Pokemon in Z-A can't go forward and can't go back. They're completely locked into Z-A. My shiny mawile who's been my companion since the days of the DS will never be able to go on future adventures with me after Z-A.

And heaven help my mawile buddy if I ever lose my save data, because I'm also hearing Z-A can't do cloud backup.

Like seriously, WTF, Gamefreak?

Gonna sound like an ass here..

But give me an actual source for this that isn't some dumb ass twitter post or youtuber?

The official word I see is that it can't go from ZA to previous games. That is it.

Info from someone who would actually know more than just about any random Twitter user or Youtuber.

 

[Caldwin]

Totally fair and totally a relief.

You know those AI summaries that Google gives you before giving you the search results? That was my source and it contradicted itself the next time I searched the same thing.

I tried to see what may have made it say that bit about forwards compatibility and only saw some wild mass guessing in GameFaqs.

Soooo...there you go. Internet continues to be the most reliable source of information always.

Still, I may be a bit cautious until more reliable sources give me something plain and unambiguous.

 

[Tm_Silverclaw]

Totally fair and totally a relief.

You know those AI summaries that Google gives you before giving you the search results? That was my source and it contradicted itself the next time I searched the same thing.

I tried to see what may have made it say that bit about forwards compatibility and only saw some wild mass guessing in GameFaqs.

Soooo...there you go. Internet continues to be the most reliable source of information always.

Still, I may be a bit cautious until more reliable sources give me something plain and unambiguous.

Lets be honest.. you're not going to get a "Confirmation" until Champions or Gen 10.

 

[Caldwin]

When I get home I'll see if I can find what Gamefreak has said or hasn't said. Google is jive when it comes to trying to find real info.

 

[Tm_Silverclaw]

When I get home I'll see if I can find what Gamefreak has said or hasn't said. Google is jive when it comes to trying to find real info.

Don't even have to wait till you get home.

https://legends.pokemon.com/en-us/news/pokemon-home

 

[ZakuConvoy]

I think this is the culprit.
reddit.com/r/pokemon/comments/1nf7w42/serebii_update_pokémon_sent_to_pokémon_legends_za/

I think people took "Pokemon from Legends Z-A will also not be able to be deposited in other Pokemon games." To mean ALL Pokemon games, past and future. When they were just saying that Pokemon that you catch from Legends Z-A will also not be able to go back to past generations. No one said anything about future generations.

I'll admit, I just assumed I missed a piece of information somewhere. Because I could see Gamefreak doing something like not guaranteeing the Z-A Pokemon being forwards compatible, due to the different battle system and team working on it. But, nope, just people jumping to the wrong conclusions, myself included. Mea culpa on this one. I just didn't bother to look it up.

 

[Glitch]

Crummy move putting the starter stones behind pay walls.

 

[Caldwin]

I think this is the culprit.
reddit.com/r/pokemon/comments/1nf7w42/serebii_update_pokémon_sent_to_pokémon_legends_za/

I think people took "Pokemon from Legends Z-A will also not be able to be deposited in other Pokemon games." To mean ALL Pokemon games, past and future. When they were just saying that Pokemon that you catch from Legends Z-A will also not be able to go back to past generations. No one said anything about future generations.

I'll admit, I just assumed I missed a piece of information somewhere. Because I could see Gamefreak doing something like not guaranteeing the Z-A Pokemon being forwards compatible, due to the different battle system and team working on it. But, nope, just people jumping to the wrong conclusions, myself included. Mea culpa on this one. I just didn't bother to look it up.

Me too. I fell for it too. Also, google ai is a crapshoot.

I'll give a more thorough review tonight when I have a keyboard instead of a touchscreen. For now I'll just say I'm torn.

 

[Caldwin]

So here's how I'm feeling after 2 nights of play:

The reviews I've personally seen on YouTube seem to either be kissing Game Freak's ass or ripping them a new one. I've seen little in-between.

First let me say that I'm really enjoying this game. I am absolutely loving it. Two nights in a row I've looked at the clock and been like "oh crap! I need to be getting to bed!" I'm only writing this review now instead of putting it off until morning because I said I'd do it tonight.

Positives:
You know, Pokemon has kind of been one of the last bastions of turn-based RPG battle along with Dragon Quest. So I would kind of hate to see them go completely away from it and never return.

HOWEVER, I am really enjoying this battle system. When I saw the trailers, I was kind of worried. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to get into it. But being the FF XIV player that I am, cool-down moves were incredibly easy for me get into. I also like having PP replaced by cooldowns. Now I never have to worry about running out of moves. The battle system is easily my favorite part of the game.

Negatives
Look, before I get into graphics, I just want to say, I am more than familiar with the argument "graphics aren't everything." I have hugging used that argument more than I'd care to admit. And it's true. Graphics aren't everything. There are very few indy games that I can think of that you would point to and say, yeah, I play that for the graphics. You can have the prettiest graphics in the world, but if the gameplay sucks, then it doesn't matter. So yeah, graphics aren't everything.

BUT THEY ARE SOMETHING! Otherwise, why even bother improving from the PS2 to the PS3, from the PS3 to the PS4? Graphics are a thing that games get judged on.

Now let's be perfectly frank. The characters look...fine. There's nothing really bad about the characters. Nothing really great...but nothing really bad either.

But the buildings? The shrubbery? Pretty much any of the assets that aren't characters...you could tell me they were Gamecube era graphics and I'd believe you.

I think when Nintendo went from 3DS/WiiU to combining the home console with the portable console with Switch, people knew Game Freak was going to have to up their game. Having portable quality graphics on a home console just wasn't going to cut it and they needed to up their game.

They kinda did, kinda didn't. I mean, no one can really say Sword/Shield or Violet/Scarlet doesn't look any better than the 3DS games. That would be absurd. Of course they look better.

But do they really look as good as other contemporary games on the same console? Eh...not really.

Conclusion:
Like I said, reviews I've seen have either been kissing Game Freaks ass or ripping it a new one. Me, I'm enjoying playing this. I'm really enjoying it. It's a lot of fun. I should've been in bed an hour ago.

But if there's one thing people have been raking Game Freak over the coals for, it's the graphics. And I really can't argue against that, especially after having paid full AAA price for them.

Look, Pokemon is a huge property...and I mean, it's freaking huge. Game Freak is not a small indy company. It is very much supposed to be a AAA company. It has money. It's also had time to up their game from their portable offerings. They've had Sword/Sheild, Legends Arceus, Violet/Scarlet and now this. It's time they started acting like the AAA company they are and start putting more effort into graphics...and less pop-in while we're at it.

Also, if Zelda, of all franchises, can find a way to put voice acting into their games...Pokemon is having less and less of an excuse there as well.

But again...let me just reiterate, I'm having a hell of a fun time playing this.